My keyboard randomly stops working when I press the arrow key for too long. How do I permanently resolve this issue?

Question

My keyboard will randomly stop working whenever I press the arrow key too many times or for too long.

I can temporarily solve this issue by restarting my laptop, so I know there's nothing physically wrong with it. However, this issue has been repeating itself for months. I use the arrow keys often, and having to shut down and restart my laptop every time I want to do something is counterproductive. Does anyone know why this keeps happening and how do I permanently fix this problem?

• The keys are clean, there is no debris.
• My drivers are up to date, so it's probably not that either.
• Please do not tell me to buy an external keyboard. That's not a valid solution.

Note: I'm using an HP envy laptop, windows 11, and everything is up to date. I've never had this issue with any of my previous laptops, and I had only bought this laptop a year prior to when this issue started to occur (July of 2024), and yet (for some reason) it persists to this day.

Answer 1

Still working. Pretty sure at this point that this was the fix - I've been using all the keys happily for 5 days.

Answer 2

Okay I got my laptop back in February 2025, I've been having this issue with it since I got it. It's drivin' me insane - I've started coping by using 'space' and the touch pad or touch screen to scroll down. I'll hold down the right arrow because that doesn't turn off my keyboard, just the down arrow and page down. I found a post where people got relief by setting up a .5 or .7 second delay using "filter keys" to turn down the speed of key repetition. I have complete relief if I use an external keyboard but I don't find that convenient for my day-to-day.

I had some luck today, crossing my fingers, with this: I opened device manager. First, I found the HID Keyboard device was listed as connected to "Converted Portable Device Control device" in device properties. On a hunch, I looked to see if anything was funky with that... it was listed under "Human Interface Devices." Upon inspection, there was a power management tab in the properties. The option "Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power" was checked. I unchecked it and clicked okay.

Holy cow, it hasn't stopped working and I've been trying to make it fail. Hope this helps somebody.

Answer 3

It worked for about a month, then it happened again. Also, my hdmi port / nvidia components failed and my vendor had voided my warranty prior to shipping it to me, so it could have been part of the storm of hardware failure at that point.

I got a new laptop, same model. The keyboard worked for about a week and then this started happening. I changed the power saving settings like this and nothing changed with the keyboard turning itself off. Two different vendors, same model, same symptom.

Today it happened... and then it came back about 5 minutes later. I checked my windows logs and the windows power management system was going crazy, being changed by some HP service to the same thing over and over. I uninstalled all the HP services and set my power management profile via GPO. It also appeared that at the time of the crash, a "power saving setting" was successfully updated, and when it came back, after about 5 minutes, the windows kernel reported an issue. But my keyboard was working again.

It's just all so weird. Certainly can't keep getting these laptops if they have a tendency to malfunction in this way.

Answer 4

If this works, you are my hero. Trying it now.

Answer 5

Hi I'm Miguel O. I'm sorry to hear you are having problems, I hope I can help you today!

One of the possibilities that could be causing the error could be the hardware which in case it is the hardware can't be fixed with some configuration and you will have to change the keyboard.

First we will try some solutions that in case it is the software that is the problem, with this we will be able to fix it.

Derrick19 - MSFT

Microsoft Agent | Moderator posted a solution for a user who had a similar problem:

“Keyboard Troubleshooter - Windows has a built-in troubleshooter that can help troubleshoot keyboard related issues. Go to Settings > Update & Security > Troubleshoot > Additional Troubleshooters > Keyboard. Follow the on-screen instructions to allow Windows to detect and attempt to fix any problems.

External keyboard test: If you have an external keyboard, try connecting it to your computer. If the external keyboard works without problems, the problem could be in the laptop's keyboard hardware.

Clean the keyboard: Sometimes dust or dirt under the keys can cause problems. Carefully cleaning the keyboard can solve this. However, be careful not to damage the keys.

Boot in safe mode: Booting the computer in safe mode can help determine if the problem is due to third-party software. If the keyboard works fine in safe mode, a software conflict could be the culprit. To boot into safe mode, hold down the Shift key while selecting Power > Restart from the Windows Start menu. After your PC restarts, go to Troubleshoot > advanced options > Startup Settings > Restart, then press 4 or F4 to boot into safe mode.

Check your keyboard settings: make sure that the Sticky Keys feature is disabled. Go to Settings > Accessibility > Keyboard and make sure the switch under Special Keys is turned off.

Hardware diagnostics: Some laptop manufacturers offer built-in hardware diagnostic tools that can check if there is a hardware problem with your keyboard. Consult your notebook computer's user manual or support website for instructions on how to use these tools.”

Original message(it is in spanish)

https://answers.microsoft.com/windows/forum/all...

If your problem persists or the problem is fixed please let me know!

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